ABSTRACT
As a location scout and location manager, I felt I was always driving erratically, half on the road, half off the road, zigzagging onto the shoul-
der with irritated drivers honking at me or gesturing rudely. I’d be driv-
ing way too slow, looking out the window and muttering out loud to myself, wondering how I could get over there, pointing at some distant
structure. This is often how location scouts drive, because we’re always
looking for the next best location: the one that is it! 99
The first movie I worked on as a location manager was a TV movie
for USA Cable Network titled Tainted Blood. In the story, an investigative
reporter begins to look into the causes behind a bizarre murder/suicide. Along the way, she discovers that the murderer had a twin sister who
was adopted as an infant. Worried that the adopted child has also grown
into a killer, the reporter has to choose between the daughters of two neighboring families, trying to determine who the troubled sibling really
is before it’s too late. The two girls live in an idyllic neighborhood where
terrible things begin to happen. Almost the entire story took place in the neighborhood where the two teenage girls lived across the street from
each other. The two houses where the girls lived were critical in the
story. That meant we were going to be shooting much of our 18-day schedule on one street in and around those two houses. That was a chal-
lenge: not only to find the right look but also how to deal with the
neighborhood in the long term.
